Mistakes are Great Mentors with Dr. Joseph Loscalzo

Joseph Loscalzo, MD, PhD, MA, is the Hersey Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine and Soma Weiss MD Distinguished Chair in Medicine at Harvard Medical School,  Chairman of the Department of Medicine and Physician-in-Chief at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Loscalzo completed his MD from the University of Pennsylvania and training in internal medicine and cardiology from Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He has authored over 1,000 scientific publications, has authored or edited 51 books, and holds 32 patents for his work in the field of nitric oxide, redox biology and vascular biology. Dr. Loscalzo has been awarded the George W. Thorn Award for Excellence in Teaching at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the Distinguished Scientist Award and the Paul Dudley White Award from the American Heart Association and the MERIT Award from the NIH to name a few. Dr. Loscalzo is the former Editor-in-Chief of Circulation, currently the editor at large at the New England Journal of Medicine and a current senior editor of Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine. Mentors are not just found in people, mentorship is a mindset, a learning mindset. Today, Dr. Joseph Loscalzo shares how he has found mentors not only in those physicians whom he has aspired to become like, but also in the mistakes he has made. And while these mentors may be more anonymized than the rest, they are absolutely as important as the personal interactions. He reminds us of a statement by Winston Churchill “Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It’s the courage to continue that counts”. And so rather than trying to avoid failure and become successful at every step, he encourages us to embrace challenges, because it is those challenges that we encounter which will foster our growth in every stage of our career. Pearls of Wisdom: 1. It’s the challenges that help us grow. It’s the times we aren’t as successful that make an impression. And we should seek comfort in facing failures and learning from them. 2. Mentors are not just people, mentorship is a mindset: A learning mindset. Our advisors, peers, students and even our mistakes can be mentors on our journey. 3. Shared success is more important than solo success and has a longer lasting effect because of its propagating features. Collaborate together to succeed.